iPhone Now Second Top Mobile Device in Europe

Runner-up to Nokia among Euro smartphones

CUPERTINO, Calif.—In terms of sales, the Apple iPhone is one of the top mobile device in Europe, second only to Nokia among smartphones.

The previously second place finisher, Blackberry-seller Research in Motion (RIM), has been overtaken by Apple based on the latest sales report from from market analyst, Canalys.

According to the analysis, Apple's second quarter European sales rose to 1.9 million iPhones in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, up from 200,000 a year ago. As a result, iPhone's market share grew from 1.3 percent to 13.6 per cent, jumping ahead of RIM, which had a Q2 2009 share of 10.3 per cent. RIM’s Blackberry sales for the period were also up at 1.4 million compared to 900,000 in the same quarter for 2008.

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Despite the Apple victory, it still has a long way to go to catch Nokia in Europe, where the Finnish-based company sold 8.9 million smartphones for a market share of 64 percent. Still, Nokia's market share is down 7.2 percent from 2008's sales of 9 million smartphones.

Meanwhile, in North America, RIM claims a 52 percent share compared 23.3 percent for Apple's iPhones. In third place is HTC with 5.6 percent,

In Asia Pacific, Nokia is top dog with a 59.7 percent share of the market, up from 50.6 percent one year ago. Second place in the region goes to Sharp with Fujitsu in third place, both seeing a dip in sales compared to 2008 figures.

The worldwide tally finds Nokia, RIM and Apple taking the top three spots for Q2, Nokia with a 44.3 market share, RIM with 20.9 and Apple with 13.7 percent. Nokia's share is slightly down, with both RIM and Apple up.

A new player, Google's Android, took a 2.8 percent share globally, up from zero a year ago, landing the smartphone in the "others" category of various devices.